Ackert: It’s important to see how Mickey Callaway and Mets bounce back from lineup error

PHILADELPHIA — Mickey Callaway had to swallow some pride over the previous 48 hours and hold himself and his staff accountable. The Mets manager gathered his players and apologized to them for the lineup snafu that made the team the laughingstock of baseball on Wednesday.

And then he moved on.

Advertisement

"I was surprised when the sun came up," the Mets' first-year manager said, with a bit of self deprecation. "Wasn't quite sure it was going to. That was tough. The day off was a day off. I always want to be on the field and play. I probably would have rather got back on the horse and played a game."

The Mets clearly spent part of Thursday's off day discussing the mix up in the first inning of their 2-1, 10-inning loss to the worst team in the National League. Assistant general manager John Ricco said that he had "a few" conversations with Callaway between Wednesday night and Friday night's series opening 3-1 win against the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park.

"From the front office perspective, something like that should never happen," Ricco said. "We have processes in place to ensure it doesn't happen. We all know mistakes do happen over the course of a year and many seasons. The thing you try to do now is you make sure it doesn't happen again. Mistakes will happen. We talked to the guys about making sure we have a process that it doesn't happen again.

"We move forward and that's about it."

Mickey Callaway had to swallow some pride over the previous 48 hours and hold himself and his staff accountable.

And that will truly be the test of how Callaway will mature as a manager in New York.

For years, Terry Collins managed this club through the Bernie Madoff financial scandal, the ugly rebuilding years, a few Matt Harvey meltdowns and some other very Mets ways of messing up by being able to address the issue and move the team — and media coverage — forward. Friday, Callaway was trying to learn that specific skill on the job and under pressure. He got some help when Michael Conforto delivered a ninth-inning, two-run home run to give the Mets a much-needed win.

"It was big," Callaway said. "We needed that feeling to get us back kind of on track. We have a long way to go. It was a big stepping stone."

Before the game, Callaway got something of a vote of confidence from Ricco.

"We've been very happy with Mickey and the things he has brought to us in the short term," Ricco said. "Mistakes are going to happen. Not that there is any excuse for it. We've just gotta make sure we have processes in place it doesn't happen. It's one of those types of things, the coaching staff, the whole baseball operations department has accountability there and make sure we are better."

While Jeff Wilpon and the Mets front office probably didn't realize that part of his learning curve would be basic, clerical issues, they expected there would be some on-the-job training when they hired Mickey Callaway. (Rich Schultz/Getty Images)

Callaway was ultimately responsible for the gaffe, even though two former major league managers said that the lineups are almost universally printed by the bench coach, which would be Gary DiSarcina, and reviewed by the first base coach, Ruben Amaro Jr., with his signature on the official card that was handed to the umpires Wednesday.

And Callaway will be held accountable for not just the basics, like getting the lineup transcribed correctly, but getting this team back on track. That began with a meeting with his coaches about tightening up their pregame process and getting this team out of a tailspin.

"We have. We made a little bit of an adjustment, we met for 35-40 minutes the other day to make sure that we're on top of things in the future," Callaway said.

But Callaway also addressed the team's recent slide. They specifically talked about ways to get their offense out of this extended slump.

"I think we're going to make a couple adjustments the way we take batting practice. Not that we were doing anything wrong but just making some adjustments to try to help guys be a little more fresh," Callaway said.

Advertisement

Sometimes one swing, like Conforto's homer, can change the direction of a slump. Callaway has to hope so, because his success as a manager will ultimately not be judged on the basics of making sure his hitters bat in the proper order, but that they actually produce. It has to be a quick learning curve.